Devon Farms recently celebrated its 25th Anniversary, which was held at Bicton Agricultural College – this was where it all started 25 years ago with the launch of our organisation.
We had a really brilliant day with beautiful warm and sunny weather. About 125 people attended, there were demonstrations of flower arranging, and felting, using local wool, and several of our members had stalls to display their further diversifications. Our members are an inventive lot, as shown by the diversity of items on offer. Several of our members now offer Wedding venues, one takes people walking on Dartmoor with a packed lunch carried by Llamas! Another works their whole farm with horses, and also uses the horses for cart rides, Weddings and even funerals. Many of us were able to enjoy a ride round the grounds of Bicton on the cart, in the warm Spring sunshine.
We had an absolute feast of different foods for lunch, provided by the members – everyone pitching in and bringing some tasty home-made treats.
The Guest Speaker was David Kennard, famed for his films about his sheep-dog, Mist. He gave a captivating and very amusing talk illustrated with slides to illustrate his working life with his dogs and sheep on the North Devon Coast.
Our Patron Anthony Gibson attended, as did Richard Haddock – I believe there is a photo of him cuddling Henrietta the hen, who will be photographed in many situations in the next few months to help promote our farm holiday accommodation.
It was great to get together with friends and colleagues old and new, many of the inaugural members attended, and there was a warm and friendly atmosphere as we all chatted and ate our way through the delicious lunch!